Crystal Dance Studios
by Agent544
Summary: A zutara au focused mainly around life in the Crystal Dance Studios. Also features tons of friendships, because I'm a sucker for those. Written for ZutaraWeek 2015. One chapter will be uploaded each day until the week's conclusion. Rated T, but really probably more like K . Enjoy and please review!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Happenstance**

Ballet class had ended fifteen minutes ago, so Katara, Suki and Mai were chatting comfortably while they stretched. Suki had immediately sunken into splits. Katara had already expressed her jealousy that the ballroom dancer had achieved a perfect split two weeks ago, just one week into the dance season. Katara herself always had to struggle with it for at least a few weeks before getting it back (admittedly, this was partly her own fault for doing less stretching during the off-season). Katara was secretly a little relieved that Azula had needed to leave for her field hockey game. The girl was certainly a talented ballerina, but she was also quite intimidating. And, unlike the other girls, she hadn't been attending the studio since age four. In fact, she had just transferred to Crystal Studios this year. Finished with her inner thigh stretches, Katara moved into splits as well. Once she was fully situated, she asked Mai to get a block under her front foot.

After fetching it, the taller girl resumed their conversation, "I was thinking that maybe we could invite Azula to our next slumber party?" she suggested, cool as ever, as though it was a perfectly reasonable and normal thing to propose.

"Mai those have always been just the three of us!" Katara protested.

"She's really not as bad as you think Katara. She's in my chemistry class, and we were partners for the titration experiment. She just looks scary."

"That glare is more than scary," Suki commented, "but maybe it wouldn't hurt to invite her at least once?"

"Alright, I guess I'll text her tonight after her hockey game and invite her," Katara conceded.

With that topic covered, Suki moved on to something more much important, "So, what are you guys doing for your senior solos? And who are your duet partners?"

"Why don't you tell us yours first, before you explode?" suggested Mai

"Please say you aren't dancing with my brother!" giggled Katara, "it's enough having you all over each other at school, I don't think I could handle it at the studio too!"

"Sokka refused to even try ballroom," pouted Suki, "but even if he were willing, there's no way Miss Sophie and I could whip him into shape before the show. My duet partner is," she did a little drumroll on her legs, "Jet! He's really good, so I can't wait to get working on it!"

"What are you doing for your solo? Latin or ballet?" prompted Katara.

"Latin, obviously, you lovely ladies are the ballerinas, I could never look as delicate as you! What about you Mai? Tell us what you're doing!"

"Ballet for my solo, duh, and I was thinking of asking Ty Lee to do a contemporary duet with me."

"That would be incredible! I can't wait to see it!" gushed Katara.

"You have to promise that we'll be the first ones to see!" Suki insisted playfully.

"After Miss Annika I'm sure you will be," Mai gave them one of her small, rare smiles, "and you Katara?"

"I definitely want to do jazz for my solo, but I still can't find a partner for my duet," Katara said, "honestly I'm starting to worry about it,"

"Well hey, if you get really desperate, either of us would do it," said Suki.

Before Katara could thank her, Miss Cynthia approached, "Ladies, Suki's parents are waiting outside, and I have another class coming in soon. Finish up your stretches then go study! Didn't you tell me you had a french test tomorrow?"

"Sure thing Miss Cynthia!" Suki replied happily. The three girls headed out to the coat room to put on their shoes.

As Katara opened the door to leave, a very annoyed looking boy crashed right into her from the other side.

"Sorry, sorry!" he picked up her fallen left pointe shoe and handed it to her.

"No my bad," Katara replied, taking the proffered shoe. For a split second they stared at each other, then both awkwardly stepped first one way, then the other, before the boy moved aside and gestured that she should go first. This might have made him seem like a perfect gentleman, if his face weren't beet red. He now looked very much embarrassed, and far less annoyed.

Behind the boy was Sokka, still chatting away. No wonder the boy looked so annoyed. He finally paused in his ongoing stream of dialogue to see Katara in the doorway. "Hey sis, hope you studied for the french test! I heard it's gonna be super hard!"

"We're going to Suki's house to study right now, tell Dad I won't be home 'til late ok?"

"You got it sis! Have fun, but not too much fun, you need to study too!"

Suki waved to Sokka as they got into Mai's mother's car.

 **-X-**

In Suki's bedroom, the girls had turned on some old CDs, and Suki was painting Katara's nails as Mai called out verb tenses, to which the other two took turns responding with the correct forms. Katara had already texted Azula, but she had yet to receive an answer.

"Dormir, passé antérieur, deuxième personne au pluriel" Mai ordered.

"Uh… vous eûtes dormi?" Katara guessed.

"Yup,"

"Nice," said Suki, as she carefully painted a tiny heart onto Katara's ring finger, "and speaking of niiiiiice, who was that guy Katara ran into on the way out of the studio?"

"Azula's brother," said Mai, "at least, he's in my calculus class and he has the same last name as her, so I'm guessing he's her brother. He's pretty quiet, but sometimes he just looks so frustrated with the math, it almost makes me want to go over and help him, poor thing."

"He's kinda cute huh?" said Suki.

"No way!" laughed Katara, "you already have all the boys falling over you! You don't get him too!"

Suki stuck her tongue out, "Make a move and beat me to him then!"

"Maybe I will!"

"We all know you won't Katara," deadpanned Mai, "You two don't think you can escape the dreaded verbs just by distracting me, do you? Suki, Appeler, conditionnel passé, troisième personne du singulier."

"Ummm…"

 **~O~**

 **As a girl who took dance classes for many years, I can 100% guarantee that this is the way we talked to each other :P WHAT DO I LOVE ALMOST EVEN MORE THAN I LOVE ZUTARA? FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS HELL YEAH. (also, a few of the girls at my studio did have older brothers, and some of us did find them hot. ahem). Those verbs. Man, i picked out some of the hardest and most useless tenses for these poor girls :P Also, I hope you guys don't mind that the teachers aren't people from the avatar universe. I couldn't really think of any women from canon who would be teaching dance. I honestly wouldn't really call the teachers in this story OCs though. They will have very minimal roles beyond being mentioned by name or correcting a move occasionally :P. They're actually named after some women who are very important to me though. I couldn't name them after my two main/favourite dance teachers, (they have very unique names and tbh i would feel weird knowing that someone could google and find my old studio) so instead I picked Cynthia, a woman who taught me Dance of the Cygnets, (it's only like a minute and a half long but it's crazy hard!) and Sophie and Annika, two wonderful women who I had the honour of working with as an assistant teacher to their classes for younger boys and girls!**


	2. Chapter 2: Vigil

**Chapter 2: Vigil**

 **Author's note: huge thanks to pennedwing for reviewing the story! You should totally check out her stories too because they are amazing! Although honestly I'm guessing that you already have :P (see the end of the chapter for more notes)**

"Friday at last," sighed Katara, closing her locker.

"Amen sister," said Mai, tossing her their shared copy of _Macbeth_ from her position at her own locker across the hall. Technically everyone was meant to have their own copy, but they spent so much time together that it hardly seemed to matter anyhow.

Suki came bounding down the hall from where she had been hanging out near Sokka's locker. "Slumberparty night!" She exclaimed. They had been having sleepovers every Friday since the third grade, but nothing would ever dampen their excitement. "And tonight Azula will be coming too!" Katara had her doubts about this, but Suki's enthusiasm, apparently, knew no bounds, "I'll go get Mai's car, you guys get her, make her feel welcome ok?" and with that, Suki was off like a shot to the parking lot so that she could bring her car around to the front of the school.

"Do you know where her locker is?" Katara asked Mai.

"I think it's in the math hallway."

So they headed off to find her, but before they even turned the corner, Azula had appeared in front of them.

"I am the perfect guest! I'm always punctual!" Azula told them, "And I also brought popcorn and jellybeans…?" It seemed like she was trying her best to sound confident, but her statement faded off to a question at the end.

"That's great Azula! We'll have a really good time tonight!" Katara assured her, "Mai's house is super huge, and her parents are out tonight, so we can play the music as loud as we want!"

Mai's smile was genuine, but Azula's seemed somewhat forced.

When they reached the front of the school, Mai demanded that Suki surrender the driver's seat. "Suki, I love you, but you really are a reckless driver. Do you have any idea how much trouble I'd be in if the car got damaged?

"I wouldn't damage it," pouted Suki as she squashed herself into the backseat with Katara and Azula, "Azula, don't you have a car? I saw you park it this morning. It can't be a good idea to leave it here over the weekend. Should I go get it?"

"No, no it's alright. My brother is taking care of it." Azula said.

"That's kind of him," Katara replied

"Well, he does owe me. I figured I could call in my debt for this."

 **-X-**

A few hours later found the four girls were lounging about on the ridiculously soft rug that covered most of Mai's floor, simultaneously doing quizzes from teen magazines and playing truth or dare. Suki had the stack of magazines and was circling Mai's answers to "What City should you live in?" In purple ink, and Azula had just gotten the last ice cube out of her bra, meaning it was her turn to give someone a question or a dare.

"Katara, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Ok, what's your mom like?"

Suddenly Katara looked like she might cry. She fussed with the tasseled corners of the rug. "My mom's dead."

"I'm so sorry Katara, I didn't mean to upset you," Azula might have continued to apologize, if Mai hadn't stepped in at that point.

"Hey, there's ice cream in the freezer. I don't think my parents would mind if we had some, Katara, Suki, I convinced my mom to buy that weird monkey ice cream that you guys like, even though she thinks it's disgusting."

The ice cream seemed to cheer Katara up a little, especially when Suki went digging through the fridge and found a jar of maraschino cherries and a tube of chocolate sauce, but she still seemed less than her usual enthusiastic self when they returned to Mai's bedroom.

"You know what would be really fun?" Azula burst out suddenly, "Prank calls! It'll be great!"

"Azula, I'm not sure that's a great idea…" Suki started, before Azula cut her off, "Oh don't worry! We don't have to call anybody important, we can just dial my brother. It's always hilarious to wake him up in the middle of the night." By this point it was already 2:00am. Mai shrugged. Suki nodded. Katara almost giggled.

"When was the last time we prank called someone?" she asked.

"Seventh grade maybe?" Suki was giggling now and reaching for Mai's vintage red telephone. Before Katara could protest, Suki had shoved the receiver into her hands, while maintaining a grip on the rotary dial. "Number?"

Azula recited the number as Katara tried to dispute the idea that she should be the one to talk. Suki waved away her concerns while dialling.

After ringing three times, a sleepy voice answered the phone, "hullo?" Katara tried her best to squash the thought that his voice was sexy. She managed to stammer out the lamest joke in her repertoire (courtesy of Sokka): "Is your refrigerator running?"

"Yeah? Yeah I think so?" he seemed genuinely baffled by the joke.

"You better go catch it!" Katara was about to hang up. The other girls were laughing, and this was typically the point in a prank call where the prankster would hang up. But she paused. Because he was laughing too. He had been woken up in the middle of the night by an unknown number, and for some reason he actually found this dreadful joke funny?

There was no denying that his laugh was sexy.

She heard his head hit the pillow as he lay back down. "Why don't you tell another?" he asked, yawning.

"Ok, umm… What do you call a cow that plays guitar badly?"

"I dunno, what?"

"Butter fingers," It was worth the strange looks that her friends were giving her to hear him laugh again, but Azula was gesturing frantically for her to hang up, so she did.

"My brother is frickin' weird. He actually asked for another joke didn't he?"

Katara nodded dumbly. Not trusting herself not to say exactly what she was thinking.

Azula broke down, positively howling with laughter. Suki giggled. Even Mai laughed, although her laughter was slightly more dignified, and didn't involve rolling around on the floor. After a minute, Katara joined in. After all, this was fun.

After Suki had called Sokka, (at her own insistence) and after they had filled out a few more quizzes in the magazines while watching the ever-classic, _Mean Girls_ , it was finally agreed that they should sleep. After all, there was pointe class tomorrow.

 **~O~**

 **Author's notes: if i owned avatar, do you think it would have ended the way it did? The answer is no. (For further clarification, I do not own avatar, i just like to play with these characters as though they were my favourite childhood barbies. nbd)**

 **My interpretations of the prompts are so loosey-goosey lol**

 **Although part of me wants to think that Azula and Zuko would be these suave cool kids, most of me just thinks they'd be majorly awkward nerds lol**

 **Also, the zombie au is def not abandoned, I've just had a lot of things on my plate and been struggling with writers block for that story. Chapter 5 is coming, hopefully soon!**

 **In regards to Pennedwing's review, I definitely agree that I need to find a better balance of dialogue to narration. This chapter was written before i even posted chapter 1, but i promise to work on that for chapter 3! The reason I play with dialogue so much, is because often times, in fiction, (both fanfiction and published fiction) character A will meet character B, have 2 on page conversations and maybe 2 more implied conversations and then be like: "we're best friends/we're so in love/it's like we've always been hanging out together/whatever" and im always left with a feeling of ? because honestly, A and B hardly know each other! How could you possibly know even a fraction of a person's personality from a few sentences and a little bit of lustful eye contact? So for me, I like to use a lot of dialogue to really show characters building relationships :P so chapter 3 and onwards will probably just be longer, because ill probably use the same amount of dialogue and expand on everything else lol. Hope you guys dont mind :P**


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